


Fluent 1Shots - Trust

by KiltedGuy



Series: Fluent Oneshots [5]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Clan Hopps, F/M, Fluent AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-01-22 12:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12481096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiltedGuy/pseuds/KiltedGuy
Summary: Judy Hopps shook up the city once during the Nighthowler Scandal.She sent shockwaves through the underbelly of the city when she leapt through flame.And now she sits at the head of her own, albeit small, Vulpine Clan.But her new political stance has called out some unfortunate attention... both to herself and the city’s unspoken prejudices.





	Fluent 1Shots - Trust

“Of course i’ll look into it, its my job after all. But wouldn’t you be better off reporting it to the ZPD?”

Judy watched the hyena’s expression turn from relief to... sadly amused if she had to name it, with a pang in her chest. The mammal with his well worn but carefully patched and sewn clothes, and a little on the too thin side to be really healthy, chuckled and spread his arms.

”I’m a Hyena **Matron** Hopps... Us and cops, well...”

Nick and Finnick stood around the corner, the larger bare chested from the shower and smaller still in his mechanic jumpsuit, exchanging glances as Judy tried, unsuccessfully, to offer the young mammal space at their table, or at least to take a small Tupperware of tonight’s dish, shaking their heads as their ears unconsciously flattened.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious. For too long, Foxes had no one to stand up for them. Even as Nick joined the force, he was seen as a mere cog in the machine, being a Todd. And he was fine with that, it was a fair description, even if he was able to speak up on several vulpines behalf since donning the badge.

But Judy, even though she was a rabbit, was a  **Matron**. A symbol of power, protection, comfort. And with her in the ZPD, every fox with a crime, usually dismissed by the larger mammals in the precincts, felt that for the first time, someone would care, would try to bring those that wronged them to justice. 

The knowledge spread quickly throughout the “shifty” species. Weasels, Raccoons, Rats, Hyenas... And sweet, caring Judy, despite having no obligation to these foxes outside of her Clan, and certainly not to the mammals outside the Vulpine races, took each and every one of them seriously. Through her, several mammals who would be overlooked by the justice system due to their species were given assistance, closure. Which, unfortunately, led to an even greater number of mammals clamouring for her help. Not even their Home was safe from them anymore.

As the most recent visitor to their apartment left and the door closed, Nick immediately went to Judy’s side as her ears drooped, leaning back against the door. Taking his cue, Finnick slipped away into the kitchen, the pair barely picking up the scrape of the footstool being dragged around. Neither said anything as Nick carefully lifted her up, holding the rabbit to his chest while heading for the main room. Shifting in his grasp enough to bury her face against his fur, she sighed deeply, grounding herself in Nick’s scent.

**”Let it out Judy...”**

Nick started to stroke Judy’s head as faint tremors came from her body, humming and purring as his chest became damp. Pulling her a little tighter, Nick took a few moments despising the mammals who came to her before releasing it in a puff from his snout. It wasn’t their fault they had no one to support them. And he understood why they would flock to the only one who seemed to give a damn about them.

But he couldn’t help hating them all for how much pressure they put onto his Doe. His One.

Out the corner of his eye, he spied Finnick carefully holding a rabbit sized, steaming mug, nudging one of the coasters into place with his foot. The scent of sweet carrot began to fill the room, rousing Judy from Nick’s chest, angrily rubbing at her eyes.

”Guys...”

**”No shame in finding things tough Sis. We all know how hard you struggle.”**

Nick nodded and gently kissed her between the ears, murmuring softly.

**”Finn’s right. You’ve done so much for people, more than anyone could hope for... please... please relax...”**

He squeezed her hand as she nodded slowly, helping her to twist round and grasp the mug of tea, watched as she gave her brother a weak but heartfelt smile and a mumbled thank you. As she started to sip, the pair of natural vulpines exchanged looks, Finnick looking worried but nodding, Nick looking desperate to shake his head but nodded in reluctant agreement.

Finnick climbed up onto the sofa next to the pair, shifting his tail to carefully draped over Judy’s thigh since she lacked the proper anatomy to reciprocate, knowing she was clever enough to see the supportive act when she saw it. Nick’s own slid around her waist as he used his claws to carefully stroke the fur of her ears.

 _”Judy... perhaps we should tell_ Bogo  _about this... he’s already suspecting something...”_

Finnick scrunched up his face as he tried to follow the Lapine words, nodding firmly at Bogo’s name. He would never become as proficient as Nick, but had already committed several words and phrases to memory. 

 _“Sister.... hard push?_ No, no wait...  _pushed hard?_ Damn it girl, you know what I mean...”

The mug warmed Judy’s finger as she rested against her lover’s body, nodding slowly. It was true that Bogo had... not outright said anything, but he was still going on about how impressive it was that they had so many crimes reported during their patrols. “The victims had to be practically lining up” was the most recent comment in the bullpen that morning, sarcasm dripping from every word. And with more and more requests for aid coming in...

She gripped the mug tighter and stared into the faintly orange tea, hoping that some divine manifestation would rise up and just offer all the solutions to her problems on a silver platter. Just this once. Quickly she drained the remaining carrot infusion, ignoring the slightly too warm burn over her tongue, and set the mug on the table, reaching out to stroke both foxes tails carefully. She could get away with being closer to the base with Nick, they were lovers,  **soulmates** , but she could only run her fingers through the few inches or so at the end of her Brother’s. A shame really, her fingers itched to give the fennec a proper Lapine grooming session, but she figured that would be pushing him further than he would be comfortable with.

”You’re right...  **You’re both right. I should talk it over with the chief tomorrow.”**

Wordlessly, Nick lifted her hand and squeezes while giving her “The Look”. Holding out for an impressive five seconds, she caved, slumping forward slightly.

”Fine. WE will talk to the chief.”

With a smirk, Finnick patted Judy’s shoulder before pushing himself off the sofa, walking a little faster than usual to get his coat. Grateful for the change of subject, Judy snuggled in against Nick’s chest, calling out.

”Another date Finn? That’s the third one this fortnight. Sounds serious.”

Finnick kept his expression carefully neutral as he tugged in his jacket, though his ears started to turn a faint shade of pink. Finally, after zipping up, he mumbled out.

**”Yeah.... It could be.”**

Grabbing his overnight bag from it’s spot near the door, he pointed to each of the mammals in turn, glaring.

**”No. Interferring. No background checks, no surveillance. I’ll introduce you lot when the time is right.”**

Then, giving them a small smirk, he swept out of the apartment with his tail twitching, calling over his shoulder.

”Don’t wait up!”

The pair stared at the closed door for a few moments before Judy nudged Nick’s chest with an elbow, chuckling.

”Would it by hypocritical of me to say how cute that was?”

——————————————

 The figure hunched down in the shadow of the alley flicked his ears up as the block’s doors began opening, creaking on the hinges. Twitching at the faint clicking of claws on pavement, he let his head rise up slowly, eyes narrowing as he target walked out into the bitterly cold night air, mentally cursing how the  **Mongrel** barely paid it any mind beyond flicking his cooling ears. Carefully removing himself from the bundle of newspapers and junk that littered the side streets of Zootopia, he almost flowed across the alleyway, feet silent as he peered round the corner.

It was disgusting, how he flaunted that pretender’s colours like that. The mockery of everything Vulpine and her unwanted bastard of a Todd had the gall, the audacity to parade themselves around in the open without fear... and get away with it, time and time again!

The fennec seethed, but forced himself to take several deep, calming breaths. They would both suffer the consequences in time, when the rightful Matron arrived. For now, he would obey, and follow his target’s movements...

——————————

Judy forced her hand away from the comforting weight around her wrist, attempting to suppress the habit of stroking her clan’s beads when she got nervous. To her side sat Nick, his expression carefully blank in a way that revealed nothing, holding a pair of thick binders in his lap. While he wanted to curl his tail tip around her leg for support, in the office they were supposed to be professional. Inwardly he winced as the buffalo looked over them, his usual face of tranquil, barely restrained fury cracking around the edges.

”Do the words ‘Political Shitstorm’ mean anything to you Hopps?”

Judy knew better than to interrupt the chief while he was getting into what the officers half jokingly called Lecture Mode, fingers flying once more to her beads out of habit. Bogo was pacing back and forth behind the desk, gesturing angrily as he tore into the pair, spouting regulations and precedents. 

The fact was, Judy couldn’t deny it. The position of Matron was, however minor, political. And if the media somehow caught wind about it, there would be scandals, investigations, inquiries.

Very likely resulting in the two of them losing their jobs. Which only seemed to inflame Bogo’s anger further, as the pair had become de facto top officers in thevwhole precinct. Eventually however, and after the soundproofing of the office was put to the ultimate test, the bovine dropped back onto his chair, rubbing his forehead wearily. Sensing this was probably her best, and only, chance to negate some of the damage, Judy climbed up, took the files from Nick’s unprotesting paws and laid them before Bogo, folding her arms. Ignoring his glare, Judy tapped the chair firmly with her foot, opening the first binder.

”Sir. All of these are cases that have been dismissed based on unfair species assumptions. Each case with a genuine greviance disregarded by officers on the force. Each of these from the past six months.”

She resisted the urge to smirk as she mentally laid down her Ace, silently thanking the quieter evenings playing poker against Nick and Finn. It had done wonders for her bluffing and poker face skills.

”Each of them genuine. Each of them investigated. Each of them resolved. Sir, folks know that most, if not all of these crimes wouldn’t be investigated because... well...”

For the first time since the meeting began, Nick spoke up, smoothly slipping his comment in behind Judy’s.

”Who would trust a Fox?”

Bogo glared at each of them in turn before roughly dragging the binder closer, pulling his spectacles out of his pocket and began to read, more out of respect to the two then any real hope that anything in it was legit. The words “sly” and “untrustworthy” were at the top of his tongue before his eyes finally gave his brain a kick, to really read what was there instead of what he expected.

The reports were textbook, naturally. Judy was enarmoured by the Law, so he fully expected the professional, detailed approach her sections had. Nick however, was his usual jester self, but he raised several good points and even seemed to be playing devils advocate, suggesting ways and methods that it may be a bluff or a scam. Grudgingly, he flipped the report over and started to skim another one.

And another. And another.

Every case, recorded to the most insignificant detail. Double blind referrals to other, less potentially invested cops. Original lab reports and officially archived copies. Everything traceable, everything transparent.

And aparantly, everything guilty. He recognised a few names, good names, or so he had thought. Unlawful evictions. Vandalism. Petty theft. A few more serious cases, like hit and runs, sexual assaults... he ground his teeth at those ones, sparing a glance at the original officers who dismissed their claims. No one special, just your average cop... following the same trend of everyone in the precinct.

Snapping the binder shut, he spared the other a glance and thought better of it, shoving the two back over the desk.

”... Point made. But this doesn’t excuse you from dragging the ZPD into Fox politics.”

With a glance at the clock he mentally sighed and leaned back, scrawling a note to mammal resources with one hand, the other supporting his chin.

”Give me the full story... and pray I can spin this into something less of a disaster...”

———————————

”You know, back at school, i’dve killed for a two week suspension.”

Judy took the tall glass of something sticky and fruity from the grinning fennec’s hand, holding back the urge to roll his eyes. The two were back at their usual nightclub haunt while Nick calmly and carefully, explained he was going to do something about their sudden fortnight of no paychecks. Nothing illegal, or even borderline, he had promised her, and after the exhausting afternoon going over the past two years with Bogo, then some red panda in MR, then the Legal department... she couldn’t bring herself to care much.

”We’re lucky it’s only two weeks and to still have our jobs... still, does feel good to have that off my chest.”

While taking a greedy sip of her drink, she looked over Finn in his usual hook up gear and felt a burst of pride in her chest. The report in question was still at the precint, and she may have used up pretty much all her favours from her squad mates, but she had a strong lead on a particular hit and run incident from a few years back, and several cops chipping in whenever they could to track down the last few vital scraps of information. Hopefully, she would have an answer, and justice, for her brother come his next birthday.

Pausing as a shadow loomed over their table, she had to double take as the usually suave fennec leapt to his feet and climbed onto the table, almost launching himself at the chest of the hyena. The taller and, now she had an excuse to look closer, well toned mammal gave a short laugh that was carefully bitten back and affectionately ran a few blunted claws down the back of the fox’s ears, dragging a larger chair for himself over.

”Kucha! Asshole, thought you were busy until tomorrow?”

The hyena, Kucha, simply grinned with a shrug and coaxed the suddenly rather grabby fennec back into his chair. Before he could pull his hand back however, Finn grabbed onto a finger tightly and pulled it back, making the larger mammal grin wider.

”Boss close up shop yeah? Some idiot charged into the bar, smashed everything. Thought I’d come surprise my little **_mpenzi_** ”

Sparing a glance at Judy, his eyes took on a mischievous glint and leaned back, looking from Fox to bunny and back again.

”Do I have reason to be jealous here?”

With a blink the obvious clicked into place in Judy’s brain and immediately threw up her hands, shaking head hard. Finn on the other hand was rubbing at his face with his trademark frustration at the world, but there was a hint of a smile behind his paw.

”Oh, wow, no, we’re not, I mean he’s, we’re...”

Tossing his head back, the larger Male gave out a cackle, spurred on to even louder levels as Finn punched him hard to the bicep, making a sound similar to punching a bag of sand.

”Relax  **sister** , this joker knows all about us. So, uh... the guy I’ve been seeing lately...”

He vaguely gestured to the hyena who mock bowed, winking at Judy. Leaning back in his chair, with Finn taking this as a silent invitation and climbed onto his lap, Kucha ordered a drink from a passing waitress, letting the smaller Male get himself comfortable maybe back against his stomach.

”Heard good things about you Matron... Just want to thank you for looking out for my little  _ **mwanga**_... Don’t think i’d Be smiling so much if it wasn’t for this little arsehole.”

Finn took this opportunity to spout off a tirade of Vulpine that made Judy’s ears burn bright red, the hyena only giving a rather smouldering grin at the ranting fox  using his stomach as a punching bag. Only a few hushed words in that odd tongue of his calmed the fox down enough for proper introductions to be made.

Kucha was a second generation Zootopian, much like Finnick, only he had  branched out away from traditional hyena roles the first chance he got. While they had some similarities to the matriarchal Vulpines, hyenas still had the old fashioned view of Strong Females, Weak Males. Kucha, growing up around large, powerful males like bison, rhinos and bears, basically told tradition to go screw itself and started working out. He took it like a duck to water, resulting in a body enviable by almost everyone.

The only downside being that anyone with even a passing knowledge of hyena norms thought he was a chick at first.

Finn on the other hand could appreciate a man who took care of his physique and, though drunk at the time, practically threw himself at the hyena. Appreciating that the Fox wouldn’t automatically assume he was female, not to mention really liking the fennecs dirty talk, he gave him a chance.

The result was a surprisingly well meshed couple. They shared the same love of dark humour and an appreciation for a well kept Male body, while being just different enough to prop each other up where they fell down. Kucha lent Finn patience and a healthy outlet for his frustration. Finn gave Kucha confidence and an understanding ear when needed.

The glasses slowly began to gather at the centre of the table as the three talked, Finn and Kucha seemingly in a contest to mortify each other the worst when it came to sharing stories, with the surprising winner of Judy when she went into vicious detail about what her sisters, mother and even father had confessed to daydreaming about her fox about. Eventually the more than tipsy rabbit threw in the towel and paid for the last of her drinks, carefully climbing down the chair and yelling as a large arm scooped her up.

” **Relax Sis,** Kucha **will get you home safe... but, uh... you know. Don’t wait up, okay?** ”

She simply nodded and tried not to think about the leer in her brother’s eyes, already throwing up alcohol fuelled mental blocks whenever her traitorously curious mind veered too close to wondering what they would even do in bed with each other. She had to admit though, that the ride was very comfortable...

——————————

He had been sitting here for three hours now. Approached several times by the... deviants that occupies this city, sending shoves down his spine at how freely the diseased minds were allowed to walk here. Pulling his jacket around him tighter to ward off the walking damned as much as the cold, he resumed his vigil opposite the house of filth, waiting for his quarry.

Thankfully, they appeared not much long afterwards, carried in the arms of some freakish ‘yena, the Mongrel directing his path. It was a setback... but if pushed...

His fingers traced the comforting hilt of the folding knife in his pocket, forcing himself to take a calming breath. While he might manage to put down the mongrel, and even maim the abomination, the brute of a freak would no doubt crush him in retaliation, leaving him useless to his Matron. And her Ladyship has no use for useless males in her Clan.

With a click of his tongue, disappointed at his prey’s escape for now, he headed back to his den through the alleyways, back to his watch on the apartment holding the worst disgraces to the Vulpine people within its walls. He was chosen for this task for his patience, and he would not dare rush his Matron’s wrath if he failed due to rushing ahead...

———————————

Judy stared up at the ceiling, hands clasped on her chest. She tried to count the number of brush strokes she could see in the emulsion. The shapes the pattern on the curtains made in the dark.  How many recipes she could go through which didn’t rely on onion.

But slowly, surely, the walls began to erode...

Until...

**_Naked Finn Naked Kucha How is that possible Where does it go How can he walk Why God Why over inflated balloon_ **

As she yelped and tumbled out of bed, screaming about “Fox Space”, Nick lifted his head enough to mumble a short reminder that Finn preferred being on top before letting his head flop back down onto the pillow.

Bunnies. So... prudish.

**Author's Note:**

> Dear god, I struggled with this. Can you tell?
> 
> And yes, surprisingly plot is happening.
> 
> I’ll let you try to figure out what Kucha is calling Finn yourselves!


End file.
